I WAS A TEENAGE HEADPHONE MOPER…*
…..who lived to tell, became the model for Botticelli’s Venus, and then got set to release the debut album, DREAM LIFE. that’s what Mary Epworth’s been up to, in case you were wondering. and if you were not, you should be. because based on the sneak peak the artist has granted me (more like a 24-7 listen to a prized bootleg) it is one of those albums you’re nostalgic for even before it comes out. and it hasn’t. and i am. got it? get it! i am also super jazzed about this release, people. privileged be the soul who gets to ponder from behind the starting block a career that is about to jump start itself into high gear in a manhattan minute. (this WAS to be my very first google video chat interview…..alas, it wasn’t to be. as i gandered into the screen and blabbered incoherently—-taken aback as i was by her stunning good looks—-i went so numb, i lost the faculty of hearing!!!! turned out to be only a faulty audio connect, so we ended up chatting without the visuals which was just as well, as i was redder than a beet in heat!) but nostalgia, on the peninsula, is a many-hooked lure, or so kevin barry would have you believe. the hell with him, get thee hence w/ THIS hook:
what are you doing RIGHT NOW? and how important is it?
Apart from this interview? Drinking tea, listening to crazy sounds spilling out of Will’s headphones. (editor’s note: now, now i know what you’re thinking: just who in the hell is this WILL character? boyfriend, hubby? dunno, but i too am very jealous. could be a pet dog, maybe. or a RABBIT! that’s it….her GMail avatar’s a bunny! unlikely, though, that a rabbit is wearing headphones, i guess…..oh well. i don’t like this WILL fella, at all!) Not important, apart from the tea of course, which is life-nectar.
what’s up w/ the new album? when’s it due?
It’s out June 18th, It’s my first album so it’s pretty exciting for me. It’s taken a long time and not been very straightforward, so just getting It out there will feel like a triumph.
with the release of the new album, you hope to (fill-in-the-blank.)
Hmm. I don’t know yet. Possibly it will start a new chapter of my life. It’s going to be interesting to get past this “making an album and getting it out”, not sure what comes after it yet. Hopefully a big sigh of relief and then on with the next thing.
in terms of your career & livelihood, define success for me?
Making a living doing something you love is the ultimate luxury. I’m not there yet, maybe at some point. I have bigger versions of that dream, but I think it’s good to remember to not be too greedy. Lots of people scrape a living doing jobs they hate, so like I say, if you enjoy your job, and you have a job, you’re already a winner.
what keeps you up at nite?
Foxes screaming in my garden, a great film on tv, existential angst. The usual. I take valerian quite often if I’m stressed, it gives you really psychedelic dreams. Sometimes I dream whole scenes of films, script and everything.
any plans to tour america?
I’d love to come and play in the States sometime. When I was really little we lived In Virginia for a few months, and also did the west coast trip. The beautiful landscape I experienced even as a 5 year old has stayed with me, it’s all through my songs. “In those, rolling hills, I can still, see Zabriskie” for example. I’m often sat in rainy England dreaming of big desert skies. Fingers crossed.
you tweeted months ago about a pipe-dream before bed one friday nite….how is the “american psychedelic” bit moving along? or not?
Still no more than a pipe-dream, I’m afraid. It’s all boring stuff like funding putting it off. Think once this album is out that might get easier! Maybe I can kill two birds, come and tour the US and attend to that other secret plan while I’m there.
turns out, this “Will?” he be Will Twynham, (http://www.handofglory.co.uk/), producer extraordinaire who brings a cerebral rusticity and a kool moustache to the proceedings that is very much in keeping w/ mary’s overall meticulous aesthetic; one that is further hammered home by cover art director & photographer, Matthew-Robert Hughes (his tumblr is here http://matthewroberthughes.tumblr.com/).there is a beauty at work across the board here. i think this album could make england shake the way PJ Harvey shook all of us last year. ”sweet boy” is no doubt about me and, as such, is my new favorite song. kidding, of course…..about the favorite song bit, HA! no, but seriously, it could be a Stuart Staples or Willard Grant Conspiracy ditty until it’s a “her” singing. then it just becomes 3:18 of a sinister heaven i’ve yet to experience.Mary’s a stunner, all right. and no mistake. go here (http://www.maryepworth.com/) and check out the “black doe” video in which she works the skirt (or would that be a slip?) to a, um, er, stunning….yeah, that’s it, stunning effect. (a warning to you foot fetishists out there, though….they’re always JUST OUT of frame, it seems.) there’s an americana-delta roots-appalachian-Band’s “Last Waltz”-thing going on here, too. all by way of saying it’s amazing that i cannot pry the fucker off my turntable since it is SO not my cup of usual 4-4 churning tea. it’s all part of my spiritual awakening….and while i’ll never get into, say, freestyle morphine jazz, i will gladly lend an ear to a muse such as Mary anytime, end of story (ok, just the paragraph) thank you very much, drive home safely.the hell with Winehouse (may god rest her booze & blues soaked soul) and never mind that fat lady who (rumor has it) sings while rolling in the deep blue sea…..this, for me, is a more consistently solid femme fatale’s take on love in the here & now / there & then. don’t bet against another epworth cleaning up come grammy time next year…..paul’s little sister’s got it going on. oh, and that WILL guy? i like him a lot, too.* thus twitterith mary epworth, may 2012
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MOJO Rising: Mary Epworth
Origin: Norfolk, UK
MOJO says: “Imagine a croonier Sandy Denny covering Ramases, with Todd Rundgren producing and The Association on hand to keep him in check.”
Current release: Debut album Dream Life is released in June via ADA/Hand Of Glory.
Want more?: Read MOJO’s interview with Mary Epworth in the current issue of the magazine - out now.
John Duncan, “Tristen and Isolde,” 1912 (via Golden Age Comic Book Stories)
